Journalists write "knowingly" on the situation in Israel without ever living here; without first hand knowledge of what it means to live in this tiny country in the midst of a rather unfriendly neighbourhood.
I write without vengeance, without hatred, just what I experience,the view from my veranda and the thoughts in my head.
My archive is available at www.lingomatics.com/Shabbatshalom/index.html

About Me

I am a freelance journalist living in Jerusalem. I strive to tell the truth as it is never seen in the media - the life of one Israeli trying to get along with everyone but not willing to deny her past nor her identity.

Friday, 21 April 2017

170421 Bargouti, Impact-se-UNWRA, Erdogan and Holocaust Day

170420

20th
April 2017

Shabbat
Shalom dear friends. I hope your Pesach, Paschah, Easter went smoothly and that
your home has returned to normal.

Marwan
Bargouti
is in an Israeli prison for acts of terror, he receives more than the rights
demanded by the Geneva Convention and he has completed his PhD while
incarcerated. He is a murderer and was convicted on 12 out of 33 counts of
murder, including the my son-in-laws Aunt, Yaela Hen, in January 2002. Bargouti
is a former leader of the Al Aqsa Brigade and a senior member of the Tanzim –
the military arm of the Fatah movement – a terrorist of the highest level.
Despite all of the above the New York Times chose to publish an op-ed by
Bargouti, sanitizing his identity as a Palestinian parliamentarian, stating his
intended hunger strike. The NYT claimed he was a political prisoner, not a
terrorist, therefore eligible for publication. Of all the weak and disgusting
excuses for publication I have ever heard that beats them all. The New York Times
chose to publish the clever rhetoric of a terrorist and ignore his racist
murderous past. Of course it is not the first time the NYT has carefully chosen
its coverage of the murder of Jews "Reporting on the Times" was a
documentary produced in 2012 https://vimeo.com/34566570
. Sultzberger, the owner/editor of the NYT at the time intentionally hid
Holocaust stories on middle pages claiming he was not like the poor Eastern
European Jews being affected.

Israeli
Holocaust Memorial Day begins on Monday night. It is a day of mourning and
contemplation, especially since the recent revealing of the relevant papers
showing that it could have been stopped. The NYT was not the only body to hide
the truth from the people, thus causing the horror and slaughter to continue.

This
BBC history account of Sir Winston Churchill's sympathies for the Jews and his
attempts to save the European Jews is both fascinating and deeply important http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/churchill_holocaust_01.shtml Sadly Sir Winston's plan was not accepted –
indeed US Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy strongly advised against it
and the plan was never carried out.

Richard
Dimbelby
was an exceptional reporter. In the days when the BBC told the truth he was a
supreme truth-teller and his report of entering Bergen Belsen was conceivably the
most emotive and factual of all reports https://youtu.be/VP9BLKZENbc

The
ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial is exceptional, broadcast on
all television stations; Members of Knesset read out the names of their family
who perished; the movie channels show films of the Holocaust; all other
stations show testimonies of survivors; restaurants and places of entertainment
are closed on the eve of Yom HaShoah and Israel becomes a country in mourning. It would do us well to remember that many of
our enemies use Mein Kampf as their textbook. Since todays anti-Israel rhetoric
is all too familiar, fueled by the lies taught from kindergarten in many Moslem
countries where Mein Kampf is number one on the bestsellers list, the next
paragraph makes important reading.

I am
very proud to be a member of the board of IMPACT-SE (www.impact-se.org) and our work has become even more relevant
since the recent UNWRA report on Palestinian textbooks. The basis of Impacts
academic research is tolerance and respect for the other in school textbooks
from countries as varied as Iran and Israel (both secular and Haredi
schoolbooks), the PA, including Hamas and most surprisingly Arab Jerusalem, a
result of an agreement after 1967 that the textbooks in East Jerusalem would
remain as those when Jordan occupied the area – now changed to Hamas textbooks.
Impact CEO Marcus Sheff has reported to British and US Foreign Affairs
committees giving essential information which forces UN bodies such as UNWRA to
rethink their policies concerning education in their schools. To read the
reports and methodology go to http://www.impact-se.org/methodology/

The
other news in short

Recep
Tayyip Erdogan
went to the people and has given himself enormous powers ensuring the death of
Ataturks dreams for a modern, tolerant Turkey

Theresa
May,
Britains Prime Minister has called for elections on June 8 to consolidate her
position in the country as the Labour Party under the extreme left-wing
leadership of Jeremy Corbyn loses members of his own party.

British
politicians
calling for revoke UK citizenship of Asma Assad for support of husbands cruel
murderous regime

President
Reuven Rivlin met with
both Catholic and Greek Orthodox leaders to address the plight of Christians in
the Middle East.

For some unknown reason the Mayor of Tel Aviv decided to take the opening of convenience stores on Shabbat to court
in Tel Aviv – and the decision was to keep them open. Why to court? I cannot
think other than a publicity stunt. The corner shops are open anyway, no change
in the status quo was intended, and despite one rather idiotic comment – this is
an amazing democracy – but a JEWISH democracy – and the deeply secular David
Ben Gurion understood the need for basic Jewish principles – after all we gave
the world the day of rest for a very good reason! The law doesn't change Israel
from a democracy to a theocracy or vice versa. Gosh I get cross with the
attitude of being Israeli not Jewish.

Good
Friday, Easter Sunday, Pesach, Passover, have all been and gone. The church bells
of Jerusalem rang out clear and loud, calling the congregants to prayer, as
they walked to church in freedom. Pilgrims flooded the Old City, enjoying
unusually balmy weather. The restaurants that opened were filled with
surprising Passover concoctions yet again proving that good food and
interesting menus are not harmed, indeed are enhanced by Kosher food.

Every
year, as Passover ends I face a challenge to my memory – as do most Jewish
households – "Where on earth did all those dishes come from; where do they
belong and why am I left with an empty cupboard at the end"!!! You see
Jews change dishes and pots for Passover, making everything new and special,
this in itself is a challenge but, am the
only one who can't remember which is what and where? Anyway that is over, life
has returned to normal or as close as possible to normal in our household! The
multitude of spontaneous guests has slowed down and we are back to our usual
insane pace.

On Wednesday we had the Board
meeting for Impact-se at the Hebrew University office. The people involved stand a head and shoulders above me and it is
such a privilege to be included in their midst to learn from them. As described
above the work is becoming more and more relevant and as the individual terror attacks
increase we recognise the need to change the textbooks of hate to some form of
tolerance.

Yesterday lunchtime Haim Elimelech Slawsky took me to lunch at the King David. Chaim Elimelech is a baby and a
gorgeous one at that, but even his charm couldn't improve the unusually
dreadful service although his parents and company ensured a lovely lunch in the
perfect setting of the veranda overlooking the Old City. The weather was ideal,
the company excellent and the special beauty of the King David won us over.

After lunch I raced home to prepare the Shabbes table for tonight and then back to the King
David to meet with Canon Andrew White,
or as he calls it Dave's Caff, together with Norman and Lola Cohen, Hanna
Ishaq, Rabbi Naftali and Andrew's helpmeet Patrick. The service didn't improve
in the few hours since our last meal but again the company was excellent. Canon
Andrew's life is very serious, his mission to save the world through kindness
and love with a firm hand is serious, his illness is serious, so I always try
to make him laugh – and usually succeed!! As always he starts with gefilte
fish, lots of gefilte fish then we all eat fish and chips – honestly!! The
conversation flew from Baghdad to Syria to toilet paper to his Jordanian projects
for Iraqi refugees and finally back to toilet paper! It must be said that
toilet paper was the joke part but for those less you we remembered the really
rough kind and using orange wrappers because my grandparents refuse to use
newspaper!!!!!

This morning my lovely friend Batsheva is coming from Tel Aviv for a day together. After collecting her from
the Central Bus Station we will go to collect Yosef from school, drive to Givat
Zeev and spend time with Rachel before the aroma of baking Challot drives us
crazy and we take our booty (little challot for all our guests) kiss the
children and Rachel and drive over my favourite panorama from atop Samuels Tomb
to show Batsheva the incredible white puzzle that makes up Jerusalem. We will
then spend the day just remembering why we care so deeply for each other – from
the veranda still ablaze with colour.

Sadly Canon Andrew cannot come tonight because
while his speech has vastly improved the lack of visa and security clearance
meant he waited too long to get to Baghdad for his stem cell treatment and he
needs to go back before his legs will take him where he wants.

Tonight the Slawsky's and our wonderful friend
Samuel Bettsak come for supper together with Millie, Gail and Shmuel. The menu
will include rice because Cristine and her sister, in true Phillipine
tradition, eat rice at all times of the day. I hope they like my stuffed
vegetables – lots of rice in there. We will start with "orange" soup
(pumpkin, leek, carrot and courgette) and then beautiful fresh salmon, herbed rice
stuffed peppers, courgette salad, roasted aubergines, green salad, chopped
salad, home pickled cucumber salad and Gail is bringing dessert. Of course Zvi
will sing Kiddush, gosh I love it when he sings, and we will have Rachels
Challa for the blessing over bread. I am excited to see Chaim Elimelech's
reaction to the candle lighting…………..

Sorry I seem to have gone on a bit! Seriously time
for music and I will write to you a short note before Yom haShoah.